Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976, Reykjavík, Iceland) displays a keen eye for the tragicomic spectacle of human experience where sorrow collides with happiness, horror with beauty, and drama with humor. Though he is primarily known for his explorations in durational performance, Kjartansson has successfully pursued more traditional media such as painting, drawing, and video. Regardless of artistic endeavor, theatricality, repetition, and identity are ever-recurring themes in his work. He has taken on countless roles in his performances, melding his own personality with characters from cultural history. His work taps into nostalgic imagery from bygone eras of theater, television, music, and art, allowing him to blur the border between life and art, reality and fiction.

Kjartansson has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries, museums, and biennials and triennials. His work was recently featured at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada, The Sundance Film Festival New Frontier, Park City, Utah, and Hafnarborg, The Hafnarfjordur Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. In 2009 he was the youngest artist to represent Iceland at the Venice Biennale's International Art Exhibition. Kjartansson has also participated in the 2nd Turin Triennial, Turin, Italy, Manifesta 8, Rovereto, Italy, the Reykjavik Arts Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland (2008, 2005, 2004), Repeat Performances: Roni Horn and Ragnar Kjartansson, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and God, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland, among others. Recent critical essays and articles discussing his work have appeared in publications including Artforum, Art In America, ArtReview, Frieze, Modern Painters, and The New York Times.

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